randomlylinked

Don't have a TV, so never really watched it there, but borrowed all seasons on DVD from a friend, watched all 4 season in span of 3 days. Watched season 3 and 4 back to back. A bit painful (sitting for that long). But a very addicting show.

Just curious, but do you know what the gulag is/was. Cuz I'm hard pressed to figure out what the gulag has to do with stuff like this. Thanks.

This is a matter that I think about a great deal, as my parents as well as one of my step parents, and a few of my friends are nurses. While I firmly believe that health care should be free for everyone, I also think that it is getting to the point where we have to realize that the Canadian health care system is incredibly broken. In terms of nurses, while compensation is important, by far the largest reason for leaving is the deplorable conditions that nurses are forced to work in. The task list of nurses in Canada is ever expanding, and the new duties are often ones that have nothing do with their training, such as heavy lifting and cleaning shit. Another source of great frustration is the outdated, and poorly maintained equipment that they are expected to use. Now I would be lying if I said that the additional money offered by the USA hospitals, along with the lower taxes, were not huge incentives for nurses moving to the US. However, when you couple that with much, much better working conditions, and being provided with the proper tools to really help people, its a pretty easy decision for many to move south. Consistent under staffing is a problem with our health care system. In the case of doctors, this is a direct result of a lack of doctors. However, in the case of nurses, this is not necessarily true, 50% of nurses in Canada are work full time, while I would be a fool to say that all the other 50% want to be full time (a lot of nurses like to be able to work 0.5's or 0.7's) but there are a significant number of nurses who are available to work more than they do, but management is not interested in using any nurse in a manner other than that that perfectly fits their agenda. I would estimate the maximum debt of a nurse exiting a Canadian school to be $30k-$40k, typically, these people graduate with minimal debt ($1k-$2k). Student loans aren't a big deal to a nurse for the most part, at least to the point where a grace period would be effective in terms of retention. No strings attached free tuition would increase enrollment, but also in number of those leaving. A contract free tuition (ie. free tuition for 4-5 years of working in Canada) would probably not be used by many students. In terms of doctors, Canada's med school tuitions have consistently been quite low, but are rising. However, it is still unusual for a Canadian med student to graduate with more than ~20k-50k debt, not exactly debilitating, especially in the US, where med students routinely carry 100k in debt. Furthermore, if we really want to keep our best, we have to recognize that these are the people that probably have full fellowships all through out their schooling, and as a result carry virtually no debt. As far as bonuses go, it would be nice, in know a lot of US hospitals recruiting nurses offer $10k bonuses, along with substantial relocation packages, often on a 2-3 year contract. For Canada to be competitive on bonuses, we would have to pony up some serious cash, and with very little guarantee. Bonuses for doctors would have to be significant, ie. on the order of 50k, for them to be interested, and like I said, we have to aggressively court the BEST doctors we have. I don't know if a small copay is the way to go, but I completely agree that wasteful behavior needs to be cut down on. I have lived in the US for the last year, and have realized how often I, and my friends in Canada, would go to the doctor or emergency when it was absolutely unnecessary. Free health care is fundamental, however, people must be made to respect how valuable it really is. To sum this up, while health care is free when you walk in the door, it is not FREE, everyone pays, and it should not be abused, but it will be. In the end, while monetary incentives could solve some problems in the short term, I firmly believe that the only path to long term sustainability is to force the people in charge of management to develop more efficient techniques. The management of their resources, particularly their personal, is extremely poor, and is really what is costing so much.

Bah, why do people always have to make up wild ideas of nano-robots. Nanotech (a stupid term anyways, most "nano" tech stuff is really on the scale of a micron) is just a buzz word. I mean, really, what is chemistry, 90% of chemistry is "nano" technology. Basically, what I'm saying is why do people have to come up with wild and crazy ideas (that are not feasible) to make something as inherently interesting as nanoscale fabrication and self-assembly more interesting. I look at stuff like carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, quantum rings, single electron transistors, nano-mechanical oscillators, DNA motors, DNA computation etc, etc.

Change of season is my favorite song of the album if I listen to it beginning to end. PTD is a top 5 overall tho.

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when 54-40 got slagged like this. They're not the greatest band ever, but there are a very good canadian band. If you live in canada, you have without a doubt heard at least one of their songs.

The major record labels, large movie studios, major networks, and major publishers all prey on people too lazy to search out quality. Thats the way things are going to be for the forseeable future. The fact of the matter is there exists top quality music of any genre. However, that music is rarely released mainstream.

blink's drummer was added to tim armstrong's (rancid, op ivy, DHC) transplants side project with rob aston. Doubt the transplants project will ever release again, it was just something tim wanted to experiment with. travis used to be the aquabats drummer, so he might get back together with them considering they are releasing a new cd. As far as the other two members of blink go, I hope boxcar racer does not return, but something tells me that it will.

hartford whalers jersey signed by all members of DKM.

Ya, military colleges are certainly difficult, however I think he was talking about a program where one could attend any university they desired.

A number of countries in europe do offer free post-secondary education, some (scandinavia) accomplish this with extremely high taxes. Others like germany do it by simply having an extremely strong economy. These are not very viable options in Canada considering public opinion. As far as someone profiting off of your education, look at the numbers ToadMan and I posted earlier. For canadian schools to make a profit they would have to increase tution by a factor of 5 or 6. ie. you would have to be paying 20-30k a year, which incidently is what alot of american private institutions charge. The increasing taxes on large corporations is a poor idea, you would flood the market with new grads, and there would be no jobs in canada for them as most of the large corportations would move to countries with more favorable taxes. As it stands now, a large number of canadian graduates (myself included) move to other countries after recieving their degree. Brain drain is an over used catch phrase, and not necessarily as bad a people make it out to be, mostly because they ignore all of the qualified people entering canada from other countries. However, brain drain is still a troubling problem.

geez, all these songs are so depressing. all you people talk about drinking alone like its some sort of sad/bad thing. When I drink alone its a f'n party, and I'm always invite(well at least while the liquor store is open). seriously though: most weakerthans: think the last last one, left and leaving, and one great city plain white T's radios in heaven the paperbacks counting crows long december brand new failure by design and soco amaretto lime bob dylan billy bragg

I'm not too sure if the flipping burgers comment was aimed at me, but sadly I'm now over qualified to do that, even if I hit rock bottom. I know for a fact that the army had the really sweet program you are describing at some point, I knew a guy who was in that (last I heard he was in Bosnia) but another friend of mine is an officer, and he has told me that that really sweet program is no longer avaliable. I wouldn't take this as gospel, but I'd tend to believe him considering the cuts in military funding. Finding your university's financial data is usually pretty easy. Go to your institution's website and search for "financial report" or "annual report". For example, my undergrad institution (manitoba) had a total budget of 512million in '04, of which 83mil was tution and fees. At least 300mil came from government, with about another 50 mil comming from the government in the form of research grants.

Post-secondary education in Canada is most definitly not free. Universities charge tution just like those in the US, the only real difference between Canada and the US with regards to post-secondary education is that (near)absence of private (the US definition of private) schools in Canada. Generally, Canadian schools are very similar to American 'state' schools, the difference being that all Canadians pay the same rate (although I know for sure this is not true in Quebec, and would guess that Alberta and Ontario also have special in province programs). International students pay other, much higher, rates. On the general issue of tution rises, I'm kinda torn. A few things people have to realize. First, your education isn't costing you a whole lot compared to almost any US school. Some how people there they manage, financial aid is better there, but students still end up paying 10k alot of the time. Second, countries that have 'free' post-secondary education typically restrict the majors you are allowed to take if the government is footing the bill. Additionally, there is usually some sort of manditory residency after you get your degree, and in the specific case of Finland, I believe that they link it to mandatory military service. Along with that goes the fact that the government is only going to fund the best students. ie. education is free to any student that can manage to keep up. Having said that, I believe that education should be affordable to all. I guess what it really comes down too alot of the time is how bad do you want it. Some how (i'm still not really sure how) I made it through a 4 year degree debt free, supporting myself, with out scholarships except for my first year. Did it suck some times? yes, but it is doable. That is actually kind of a funny comment considering that what you are paying for is not even a quarter of what you are getting. If you check the funding of your university I'm pretty confident that you will find that tution accounts for a small portion of their budget.